University writing skills.

[Myalilysally]

Morning,

I’m looking for some help and guidance on my writing skills.

I’ve just received my first grade at university and it’s pretty poor. This is following on from being the top of my Access class in college and receiving distinctions. So I’m pretty upset and deflated.

My feedback is my writing is too academic and confusing at times.

I wondered if there is anyone here that marks course work, is a high achieving writer maybe and can give me some pointers to what I’m doing wrong and how to simplify my writing.

Thanks.

Flobot7 - It is only my writing style I scored in the 70's for my analysis of the subject and my depth of research.
The highest anyone got was 63%

Thank you for the link, I had just found that myself earlier and saved it to my computer.

I also don't fit your description, but I am a (mature) student whose had lots of essay issues. (am intelligent enough to understand lots, but poorly educated, and too neurologically challenged to regurgitate well or be succinct.)

I don't know if it's a large step up from college access course, (I got accepted via a back door!) but there's definitely a large step up between most education levels.

'Too academic' suggests (to me) you might just be trying to run without having proved you can walk first and aren't using the 'standing on the shoulders of giants' approach that seems to be required.

I was aware of my issues, but thought I was structuring my essays well enough to be understood at least, so was shocked to be told parts of them were confusing. Apparently I was expecting the reader to do too much of the work in joining up quotes that I thought were self explanatory with what I was writing about.

My next essay got shredded for over explaining and assuming the reader to be incapable. It's a fine art.

Left to my own devices, I over research, and then find what to me are fascinating aspects of a subject and tend to focus on them at the expense of the core. I got hammered early on as my subject mater was considered only appropriate for masters level not BA, and my writing ability didn't match my interests level. Very confusing for an early school leaver who had no idea about graduated learning.

IME generally the issue simply is with the students approach, but just occasionally it can be the tutor demanding you come down to the level of your year group or fit expectations of the standard you 'should' be at. (that's when second markers come in at assessment)

You might find some help here:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/mature_students

and also possibly from The Student Room. (not used it, but some younger students do.)

Also your university should have a department that supports students with academic writing. (Quality can vary.)

Really appreciate how deflating it is to have worked really hard and think you are doing something well enough, only to be told you're not, but don't be too upset. Most of us have been there. We're students, whatever our age or past experiences, and we're there to learn, (and fit into a teaching/assessment system) not prove we're already good enough not to need to, IYSWIM.

PS there was only one response there when I started writing that!

Elleherd - Thank you!
I resonate with a lot of what you said, I also research to much apparently, and I think that's exactly what they mean, I have assumed the reader can connect the dots, but when I've tried to simplify my work in the past, it has not worked at all, so I always revert back to my own 'style' of writing.

If the highest mark was 63%, then that probably means that the lecturer was giving the entire group a kick up the arse to show them that this is uni level now and that they can’t “coast”. Some lecturers will mark introductory first year modules deliberately harshly for this reason; the mark doesn’t count and the kids learn that lesson now rather than when it actually matters. It can be a bit of a shock though, especially if you’re used to being top; uni is very different from school/college. Don’t worry too much, it’ll all come out in the wash. The skills will be second nature to you soon 😊

You passed OP! Keep working on your style and if you're getting 70s for content then that's very positive. I teach A-level and I can always help students with writing but it's much harder if their grasp of the subject is weak.

I teach Economics and I must say my experience of historians is they do things their own way. Has the tutor published any books or articles? What's their style like?

You might just have done something that unreasonably irritates them like used or not used Oxford commas or used comma splices!

55 isn't a bad mark though. Especially when you say the highest was 63. And you can't compare to your friends doing English, at university marking isn't standardized and there will always be variations between courses and even between lecturers. My student DC find this really infuriating. Also it's only your first essay - make sure you get feedback and then build on that. Plenty of time to adapt and improve.

Look …

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/mature_students/4394539-I-am-really-struggling-with-my-first-MSc-essay-please-help?msgid=114837461

Have look at the OU - they have some free resources and they are the experts in teaching people how to study, particularly mature students.

help.open.ac.uk/essays

You can also get books with advice

I'm a mature student on a Master's course and wanted to improve my writing. My degree was in medicine which is largely a matter of learning a vast amount of information and regurgitating it in an organised fashion! I'm finding 'How to Write Better Essays' by Bryan Greetham (Macmillan Study Skills series) very helpful and my grades are improving.

I too noticed a different in the expected writing style/format between different subjects. You might expect that between say, science and English, but even between English and History there will be a difference in the expected format/structure/style. I remember one of my fellow Classics students getting roasted by a lecturer because she had compared two poems in the same way that she would for English Lit and they wanted it in a completely different order! There was nothing wrong with the content at all. So I’m just confirming the pp suggestions to find out what style they are expecting and you’ll be getting much better marks, as you say you already scored well on content! Don’t lose heart

Sorry I went to answer the door.

Your uni might run study skills courses and you should probably make an appointment with your personal tutor to look at your essay and get some advice on what you can do to improve.

One 'rule of thumb' is to write the essay as though you are addressing a student doing your course at another uni.

So say it was a history degree (I know you mentioned English but that is so far out of my comfort zone I would start gibbering) and you are both studying Napoleon.

So you can assume a basic level of knowledge and jargon, you might be writing about a particular battle, the 'reader' will know who Napoleon is and others involved eg generals and places so you don't need to explain them, but you would need to give numbers of combatants and the lay of the land, weather etc.

Library may run support sessions or have a look at Futurelearn, they had a free short course about university essay writing skills.

If you are unsure of what your lecturer is getting at in their feedback then ask them to go through an example with you.

They should be happy to do that.

I returned to uni after years away and I got similar first essay feedback.
I went to a play in uni called Upgrade where they taught me how to write a paragraph. How to start it, keep it in the same subject, conclude it and move it along. It helped hugely.
Try that sort of thing at your uni. The confusing bit maybe down to parapraph construction

It takes a little time to settle into the style OP. I went from a shiny First Class degree to failing my first teacher training assignment . It's hard!! The second I scored a rather disappointing 52!! I am waiting for my latest two assignments to be returned. I am hoping that there will be improvement after trying to take the tutor's feedback on board. Do not despair my lovely. It is early days x

Ps - remember - this first year is all about building up your skills for the next two years. If you could do it all already you would have no need to be studying x

One tip I give my students is to try reading things out loud. If that’s difficult it probably means it’s also difficult to read. Short sentences are better than convoluted ones.

Check out "Manchester phrase bank" online @Myalilysally it helps me quite a bit when I'm trying to phrase things correctly!

Don't know how helpful this is, but I suspect you need to understand academic essay structure from their POV better. Something I'm still working on.
It means setting aside per-conceptions and starting over from a POV of 'How would you like this stuff presented' and it can be a bit soul destroying at the time, but it will get you there in the end.

If you have a good vocabulary and are verbally articulate, it may well be assumed you can figure it out easily enough, and ought to already have learnt and understood grammar . I find dealing with assumptions can be the most difficult bit.

Some issues I know I have are not integrating quotes into my work well enough, (causes confusion) and I've gone from being told my sentences are too long, to I shouldn't be making shorter sentences, they should be continuous paragraphs.

I can see there is a lack of 'flow' but currently don't know how to address it.

Another big stumbling block issue is taking facts and stating X & Y means that it was easy for Z to subsequently happen.
Hasty example: A main road crossing is removed, a school is subsequently built, the figures for child vs car collisions go through the roof. I've covered these things as referenced facts earlier in the essay.
I then extrapolate that 'poor planning for children to safely access the school is the reason for raised injury and mortality.' It's logical but not academically acceptable as it's too much of my opinion and can only be stated if someone else has already said it, so it can be referenced. I find it so hard to pick out when I'm incorrectly stating what to me feels like the bloody obvious, but hey ho, that's what's wanted, so...

My method of writing is also painfully hard work, but I'm unable to plan essays using the approved systems, so work backwards.

If you are able to follow essay planning there should be a whole section in your library devoted to it. If you aren't, tough it out, you'll find a way round.

As previously one of the hopeless, I just got an indicative first, though with several caveats that parts didn't meet academic standards at all.

Whatever the issues the fact you want to succeed will carry you. You just have to keep picking yourself back up, read the criticism carefully, take it to others if you don't understand it, and book tutorials with whoever is telling you it's not what they wanted. It can be bruising, but no fight get won easily.

If you ask for this to be moved to the mature students board, you'll find others at varying stages of similar issues.